A Beginners Guide to Content Marketing for Small Businesses.
The landscape of marketing has undergone considerable transformation over the years. Strategies that yielded remarkable results a decade ago have become nearly obsolete today. It's a continually evolving domain that keeps enterprises on their toes. In essence, business success hinges not just on having a superior product or exceptional customer service, but on effectively publicising your company's presence.
For small businesses, marketing has historically been challenging due to budget constraints. However, the paradigm has shifted in favour of small businesses with the ascendance of online platforms over traditional marketing methods. Online marketing offers a level playing field, pitting large corporations against SMEs based on digital strategies rather than budget size.
Content stands out as a pivotal aspect of online marketing. This article delves into how you can harness content marketing to cultivate brand recognition and draw in leads for your local small-scale enterprise.
Defining Content Marketing
Content marketing, as the name implies, involves leveraging content for marketing purposes. But how does it contribute to lead generation, you might ask?
Consider this marketing scenario.
When seeking information on, for instance, legal aspects related to property, where do people turn? Google! Nowadays, individuals resort to the internet to address their queries, whether seeking information or exploring products and services.
Building on the earlier example, if you operate a law firm and have the foresight to maintain a website, it's beneficial to regularly share search engine optimised content addressing various common legal matters in the UK. This practice ensures that local individuals find your website when in need of information, gradually fostering trust and positioning you as a thought leader in the industry.
How does this translate into profit? When individuals who follow your blogs encounter legal concerns or someone in their network seeks legal advice, who do you think will come to mind? You! They have witnessed your expertise regarding UK law.
Of course, the process isn't as straightforward as presented here, as various steps are involved before a reader of your blogs transitions into a paying customer. Nonetheless, it's a promising beginning.
Content Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Before delving into what to do, let's outline what you should avoid:
First and foremost, refrain from plagiarising or copying. Originality is key when crafting content for your website. Copying not only puts off your readers but also invites penalties from search engines like Google, resulting in a loss of valuable traffic. While drawing inspiration from relevant blogs is acceptable, ensure you provide your professional insights.
Consistency is crucial; irregular updates will negatively impact your website's ranking and traffic. Understanding how often Google crawls your website and aligning your blog updates accordingly can significantly boost traffic. Now that we've addressed what to steer clear of, let's explore content strategising tips tailored to small enterprises:
Content marketers unanimously agree that writing a blog isn't the challenging part; rather, generating content ideas poses the real challenge. Don't fret! Here's a simple solution to kickstart your blog: utilise the frequently asked questions section from your website. Create content that addresses these questions. Another approach is to solicit opinions from your readers regarding what they'd like to learn about or read, using their suggestions as future topics.
Emphasise the use of pertinent keywords. This point can't be stressed enough. Your content will still attract traffic even without optimised keywords, but to broaden your audience reach, your content should be rich in relevant keywords. Utilise online tools like keywordtool.io to identify highly searched keywords relevant to your blog topic, and integrate them strategically in line with Google's guidelines.
Craft original content
Content needs to be genuinely aimed at helping people. Indeed, writing and updating content constitute marketing techniques, but they fall under the umbrella of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing involves attracting people to your business by providing the information they seek. Content marketing doesn't involve hard-selling tactics, so avoid attempting to entice people to purchase from your business through the content. Instead, establish a reputable position for your business in people's minds through valuable content, earning their trust and potential conversion into customers.
Nurturing Your Small Business through Content Marketing
There's much more to content marketing than can be encapsulated in a single article. Nevertheless, utilise this article as a stepping stone to initiate content marketing for your enterprise. For additional tips and insights, stay tuned to this page, as we will continually augment it with fresh content covering pertinent content marketing strategies for small local businesses.
What's Next?
Ready to elevate your online presence and drive real results? Let us work our magic, partner with us at Manage My Marketing and watch your business thrive with SEO based content marketing.
Get in touch today for a personalised SEO strategy that's tailored to your goals and aspirations. Your success story could be the next one we're sharing!
Follow us on Facebook for great content to help you improve your brand's visibility.
